Bill Text: CT SB00442 | 2010 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: An Act Concerning Boards Of Education.

Spectrum: Committee Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-03-11 - Public Hearing 03/15 [SB00442 Detail]

Download: Connecticut-2010-SB00442-Introduced.html

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General Assembly		Raised Bill No. 442
February Session, 2010		LCO No. 2245
		*02245_______ED_*
Referred to Committee on Education
Introduced by:
(ED)

AN ACT CONCERNING BOARDS OF EDUCATION.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Section 10-223e of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2010):

(a) In conformance with the No Child Left Behind Act, P.L. 107-110, the Commissioner of Education shall prepare a state-wide education accountability plan, consistent with federal law and regulation. Such plan shall identify the schools and districts in need of improvement, require the development and implementation of improvement plans and utilize rewards and consequences.

(b) Public schools identified by the State Board of Education pursuant to section 10-223b of the general statutes, revision of 1958, revised to January 1, 2001, as schools in need of improvement shall: (1) Continue to be identified as schools in need of improvement, and continue to operate under school improvement plans developed pursuant to said section 10-223b through June 30, 2004; (2) on or before February 1, 2003, be evaluated by the local board of education and determined to be making sufficient or insufficient progress; (3) if found to be making insufficient progress by a local board of education, be subject to a new remediation and organization plan developed by the local board of education; (4) continue to be eligible for available federal or state aid; (5) beginning in February, 2003, be monitored by the Department of Education for adequate yearly progress, as defined in the state accountability plan prepared in accordance with subsection (a) of this section; and (6) be subject to rewards and consequences as defined in said plan.

(c) (1) Any school or school district identified as in need of improvement pursuant to subsection (a) of this section and requiring corrective action pursuant to the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, P.L. 107-110, shall be designated and listed as a low achieving school or school district and shall be subject to intensified supervision and direction by the State Board of Education.

(2) Notwithstanding any provision of this title or any regulation adopted pursuant to said statutes, except as provided in subdivision (3) of this subsection, in carrying out the provisions of subdivision (1) of this subsection, the State Board of Education shall take any of the following actions to improve student performance and remove the school or district from the list of schools or districts designated and listed as a low achieving school or district pursuant to said subdivision (1), and to address other needs of the school or district: (A) Require an operations audit to identify possible programmatic savings and an instructional audit to identify any deficits in curriculum and instruction or in the learning environment of the school or district; (B) require the local or regional board of education for such school or district to use state and federal funds for critical needs, as directed by the State Board of Education; (C) provide incentives to attract highly qualified teachers and principals; (D) direct the transfer and assignment of teachers and principals; (E) require additional training and technical assistance for parents and guardians of children attending the school or a school in the district and for teachers, principals, and central office staff members hired by the district; (F) require the local or regional board of education for the school or district to implement model curriculum, including, but not limited to, recommended textbooks, materials and supplies approved by the Department of Education; (G) identify schools for reconstitution, as may be phased in by the commissioner, as state or local charter schools, schools established pursuant to section 10-74g, or schools based on other models for school improvement, or for management by an entity other than the local or regional board of education for the district in which the school is located; (H) direct the local or regional board of education for the school or district to develop and implement a plan addressing deficits in achievement and in the learning environment as recommended in the instructional audit; (I) assign a technical assistance team to the school or district to guide school or district initiatives and report progress to the Commissioner of Education; (J) establish instructional and learning environment benchmarks for the school or district to meet as it progresses toward removal from the list of low achieving schools or districts; (K) provide funding to any proximate district to a district designated as a low achieving school district so that students in a low achieving district may attend public school in a neighboring district; (L) direct the establishment of learning academies within schools that require continuous monitoring of student performance by teacher groups; (M) require local and regional boards of education to (i) undergo training to improve their operational efficiency and effectiveness as leaders of their districts' improvement plans, and (ii) submit an annual action plan to the Commissioner of Education outlining how, when and in what manner their effectiveness shall be monitored; [or] (N) notwithstanding the provisions of chapter 146, any special act, charter or ordinance, the commissioner may reconstitute the local or regional board of education for the school district; or (O) any combination of the actions described in this subdivision or similar, closely related actions.

(3) If a directive of the State Board of Education pursuant to subparagraph (C), (D), (E) or (L) of subdivision (2) of this subsection or a directive to implement a plan pursuant to subparagraph (H) of said subdivision affects working conditions, such directive shall be carried out in accordance with the provisions of sections 10-153a to 10-153n, inclusive.

(4) The Comptroller shall, pursuant to the provisions of section 10-262i, withhold any grant funds that a town is otherwise required to appropriate to a local or regional board of education due to low academic achievement in the school district pursuant to section 10-262h. Said funds shall be transferred to the Department of Education and shall be expended by the department on behalf of the identified school district. Said funds shall be used to implement the provisions of subdivision (2) of this subsection and to offset such other local education costs that the Commissioner of Education deems appropriate to achieve school improvements. These funds shall be awarded by the commissioner to the local or regional board of education for such identified school district upon condition that said funds shall be spent in accordance with the directives of the commissioner.

(d) The State Board of Education shall monitor the progress of each school or district designated as a low achieving school or district pursuant to subdivision (1) of subsection (c) of this section and provide notice to the local or regional board of education for each such school or district of the school or district's progress toward meeting the benchmarks established by the State Board of Education pursuant to subsection (c) of this section. If a district fails to make acceptable progress toward meeting such benchmarks established by the State Board of Education and fails to make adequate yearly progress pursuant to the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, P.L. 107-110, for two consecutive years while designated as a low achieving school district, the State Board of Education, after consultation with the Governor and chief elected official or officials of the district, may request that the General Assembly enact legislation authorizing that control of the district be reassigned to the State Board of Education or other authorized entity.

(e) Any school district or elementary school after two successive years of failing to make adequate yearly progress shall be designated as a low achieving school district or school and shall be evaluated by the Commissioner of Education. After such evaluation, the commissioner may require that such school district or school provide full-day kindergarten classes, summer school, extended school day, weekend classes, tutorial assistance to its students or professional development to its administrators, principals, teachers and paraprofessional teacher aides if (1) on any subpart of the third grade state-wide mastery examination, thirty per cent or more of the students in any subgroup, as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act, P.L. 107-110, do not achieve the level of proficiency or higher, or (2) the commissioner determines that it would be in the best educational interests of the school or the school district to have any of these programs. In ordering any educational program authorized by this subsection, the commissioner may limit the offering of the program to the subgroup of students that have failed to achieve proficiency as determined by this subsection, those in particular grades or those who are otherwise at substantial risk of educational failure. The costs of instituting the ordered educational programs shall be borne by the identified low achieving school district or the school district in which an identified low achieving school is located. The commissioner shall not order an educational program that costs more to implement than the total increase in the amount of the grant that a town receives pursuant to section 10-262i in any fiscal year above the prior fiscal year.

(f) The Commissioner of Education shall conduct a study, within the limits of the capacity of the Department of Education to perform such study, of academic achievement of individual students over time as measured by performance on the state-wide mastery examination in grades three to eight, inclusive. If this study evidences a pattern of continuous and substantial growth in educational performance on said examinations for individual students, then the commissioner may determine that the school district or elementary school shall not be subject to the requirements of subsection (e) of this section, but shall still comply with the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, P.L. 107-110, if applicable.

Sec. 2. Section 9-185 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2010):

Unless otherwise provided by special act or charter, (1) assessors, (2) members of boards of assessment appeals, (3) selectmen, (4) town clerks, (5) town treasurers, (6) collectors of taxes, (7) constables, (8) registrars of voters, (9) subject to the provisions of subsection (c) of section 10-223e, as amended by this act, members of boards of education, and (10) library directors shall be elected, provided any town may, by ordinance, provide for the appointment, by its chief executive authority, of [(1)] (A) a constable or constables in lieu of constables to be elected under section 9-200 or [(2)] (B) a town clerk, town treasurer or collector of taxes in lieu of the election of such officers as provided in section 9-189. Unless otherwise provided by special act or charter, all other town officers shall be appointed as provided by law and, if no other provision for their appointment is made by law, then by [(A)] (i) the chief executive officer of such municipality, or [(B)] (ii) where the legislative body is a town meeting, by the board of selectmen, or [(C)] (iii) by such other appointing authority as a town may by ordinance provide, and except that, if a board of finance is established under the provisions of section 7-340, the members thereof shall be elected as provided in section 9-202 and except that assessors may be elected or appointed under the provisions of section 9-198. Any town may, by a vote of its legislative body, determine the number of its officers and prescribe the mode by which they shall be voted for at subsequent elections.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1	July 1, 2010	10-223e
Sec. 2	July 1, 2010	9-185

Statement of Purpose:

To amend the accountability statute to allow the Commissioner of Education to reconstitute local or regional boards of education for school districts designated and listed as a low achieving school district.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]